Nicolai Budkov Kjær

Nicolai Budkov Kjær (born 1 September 2006) is a Norwegian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 118 achieved on 13 July 2026. He is currently the No. 2 singles player from Norway.

Budkov Kjær won four singles titles on ATP Challenger Tour. He represents Norway at the Davis Cup where he has a W/L record of 4–4.

Early life Budkov Kjær was born to a Norwegian father and an Estonian mother. He has a sister who also plays tennis, Alexandra Budkova Kjær. He lives in Bygdøy, Oslo, and trains at Oslo Tennisarena and Wang Toppidrett.

Junior tennis Budkov Kjær won two Grand Slam Junior titles, at the 2024 French Open with Joel Schwärzler, and in singles at the Wimbledon in the same season, becoming the first Norwegian man to win major titles at either the junior or professional level.

He reached an ITF junior combined ranking of world No. 1 on 15 July 2024.

Professional career

2023-2024: Davis Cup debut In September 2023, Budkov Kjær made his Davis Cup debut against Peru.

In February 2024, he replaced Dominic Thiem at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in Oslo, the ninth edition of the tournament. The following month, he won his first professional title at the $15k Antalya Series. He subsequently made his debut in the top 1000 of the ATP rankings at world No. 897 on 8 April 2024. He was the first Norwegian to do so since Casper Ruud in 2016. Also in February, he recorded his first Davis Cup win, over Latvian Davis Rolis, and in September his second, with a win over Portuguese Jaime Faria, who was ranked No. 157 at the time.

2025: Four Challenger titles, ATP first win In February, Budkov Kjær won his first ATP Challenger title defeating fellow countryman Viktor Durasovic in the 2025 Glasgow Challenger. The match up was only the second time ever two Norwegians had met in a Challenger final, after Christian Ruud and Jan Frode Andersen who met in Fürth in 1998. As a result he reached a new career high ranking of No. 297 on 24 February 2025.

In April, ranked at a career-high of No. 287, Budkov Kjær received a wildcard for the qualifying competition at the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters.

In June, Budkov Kjær played his first qualifying match in a Grand Slam event and reached the second qualifying round at 2025 Wimbledon Championships. In July, Budkov Kjær made his ATP debut after qualifying for his first main draw at the 2025 Swedish Open. In the first round he defeated Thiago Monteiro to grab his maiden win on the ATP Tour. Budkov Kjær earned his second Challenger title at the Tampere Open, defeating Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg in the final. As a result, he entered the top 200 at world No. 187 on 28 July 2025, rising close to 70 positions up in the singles rankings. The following week he won the Astana Challenger after beating Alexandr Binda, putting him sixth in the NextGen ATP race. As a result he reached a new career-high singles ranking of world No. 163 on 4 August 2025. As a result he reached a new career-high of world No. 136 on 13 October 2025. facing Reilly Opelka in the first round.

In April, the Norwegian qualified to Madrid Open main draw, after victories over Francesco Maestrelli and Moez Echargui in the qualifying. He advanced to the next round after Reilly Opelka retired due to an injury. He then defeated 31st seed Denis Shapovalov to reach his first Masters third round.

Performance timeline

Singles Current through the 2026 Mutua Madrid Open.

ATP Challenger Tour finals

Singles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up) LegendATP Challenger Tour (4–1)Finals by surfaceHard (3–1)Clay (1–0)

ITF World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendITF WTT (2–2)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (2–1)

National and international representation

Davis Cup: 8 (4 victories, 4 defeats) Group membershipWorld Group (0–0)WG play-off (0–0)Group I (4–4)Group II (0–0)Group III (0–0)Group IV (0–0)Matches by surfaceHard (4–2)Clay (0–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Matches by typeSingles (4–4)Doubles (0–0) indicates the outcome of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Exhibition matches

Singles

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (title)

Awards

2024 ITF Junior World Champion